1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network printer, and more particularly, to a web page printing method for printing other web page information linked (hyperlinked) to an output web page and an apparatus therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of information communications apparatuses, a variety of mobile devices as well as computers, for example, a mobile phone, a PDA, and a network printer, are equipped with web browsers such that a web page on a web server can be accessed and printed from the devices.
In particular, a network printer equipped with a web browser (Internet/web printer) that can directly print a web page without passing through a computer is becoming ubiquitous. The Internet/web printer comprises a web browser and a network card. The Internet/web printer obtains information, such as web page information, from a web server via the installed web browser through a network interface apparatus, such as the network card, converts the obtained web page in a form that can be printed, and prints the web page.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laying-Open Gazette 11-134126 (laid open on May 21, 1999) discloses a printer that can directly obtain data from a web server on a network without passing through an information processing apparatus, such as a computer, and can print data obtained from a web server. The apparatus of the Japanese Patent Application Laying-Open Gazette 11-134126 can store a bookmark, and enables the printer to set a printing time of web pages corresponding to uniform resource locators (URLs) in the bookmark. The URLs in the bookmark are displayed, retrieved, and selected on an LCD panel. The bookmark uses the worldwide web, and stores predetermined web addresses in the form of a list to easily access the web addresses.
The URL indicates the locations of files in each web server providing services on the web and includes the types of accessible services, the location of the web server (domain name), and a file name. The general syntax of the URL is formed as follows: protocol://the name of a computer containing information/directory name/file name.
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a conventional Internet/web printer printing web page information. The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 comprises a URL input unit 102, a content loading unit 104, a content parsing unit 106, a content layout unit 108, a content rendering unit 110, and a printer engine 112.
The URL input unit 102 receives a URL of a web page desired to be printed by a user. The content loading unit 104 accesses a web server 140 through a network card (not shown), obtains web page information corresponding to the URL input through the URL input unit 102, and provides obtained web page information to the content parsing unit 106. The content loading unit 104 corresponds to a web browser installed in a network printer, thereby providing the Internet/web page printer.
The content parsing unit 106 parses content data to be output, from the web page information. The content data to be output is, for example, a text, a figure, an image, etc. The content layout unit 108 lays out information items provided by the content parsing unit 106, that is, the text, figure, image, etc., on locations where, and in a way by which, the items are to be printed on a printing paper, and provides the layout information to the content rendering unit 110.
The content rendering unit 110, which refers to the layout information generated in the content layout unit 108, renders an image to be printed, and converts the image into a print command that can be processed by the printer engine 112. The printer engine 112 prints a printing paper 114 according to the print command provided by the content rendering unit 110. By the print operation of the printer engine 112, the web page information is printed on the printing paper 114.
In the conventional Internet/web printer shown in FIG. 1, the URL of a web page desired to be printed is input through the URL input unit 102, web page information is obtained through the content loading unit 104, and, thus, obtained web page information can be printed in the printing paper 114 through the content parsing unit 106, the content layout unit 108, the content rendering unit 110, and the printer engine 112.
However, in the printed web page, the URL of a predetermined hyperlinked article cannot be found (determined/accessed). This is because when the web page is printed, only a typical indication (for example, underlined hypertext letters) that the predetermined article is hyperlinked to the web page when displayed is printed on paper, but the URL of the article is not revealed on the printed web page or accessible at the Internet/web printer, for example, by being registered as a bookmark and displayed via the URL input unit 102 for print selection. Accordingly, with the prior art Internet/web printer, the contents of a predetermined article hyperlinked to the web page printed cannot be readily checked (accessed via the Internet/web printer) without manually determining the URL of the hyperlink and/or inputting the URL of the hyperlink via the URL input unit 102 to print the hyperlinked web page.
Accordingly, since a conventional Internet/web printer can access only URLs registered in the bookmark or input via an input unit, a user cannot efficiently access a desired hyperlinked web page shown on a printed web page. For example, even if after printing a web page a user wants to print a web page hyperlinked to the printed web page, because the URL of the hyperlinked web page cannot be obtained from the printed web page, the user cannot print the linked web page.